Persian Gulf, United Arab Emirates

Holy hot box! It's so ridiculously hot here, that I don't even have words to describe it. The Fahrenheit temperature is 115 degrees. We have resorted to mapping out our plans in blocks….stop at this place for ice cream, the mall is another block. Normally, I don't sweat. I glow. Here, it's downright sweating. Sweat is running down my face after walking only a block. It's gross - we'll just leave it at that. Any place indoors here has the A/C cranked and I end up getting so cold that I'm ready to go back into the heat. My pores get so confused - expand, constrict, expand, constrict!

We started the day by walking around the city. Malls on top of malls. A lot of shopping here! The mosques were also interesting to see, and often have rules posted outside for tourists. Lance and I ended up at the beach, so we took a dip in the Persian Gulf. Our beach outing only lasted for about an hour because of the heat.

Dubai has world famous gold and spice souqs (markets), so we perused this area for much of the evening. The gold souqs are staggering, with gold showcased in every inch of the windows. I found the spice souqs to be really interesting. Any kind of herb or spice that I could imagine is available.

A few noteworthy cultural differences:

1. Women drive here, unlike Uganda. If one is to take a taxi, there are separate taxis for women and children. A woman cannot ride alone in a car with another man, thus women drive the pink taxis. If her husband is with her, they can take either the pink or the yellow taxis.

2. There is a separate beach for women and children. Men use the public beach.

3. When I see families out together, oftentimes the woman is the only one in a burqa. The others wear Western clothing. Women cannot even reveal their face when they eat, so they open a little trap to shove their fork in.

One of the customs in UAE is smoking shisha. A very mild, flavored tobacco is put in a bowl at the top of a contraption. Water is in the bottom, while coals are placed on top of the tobacco, and it is smoked through a hose-like piece. Look at the pictures for illustrations. Anyway, Lance and I tried it. I felt like I was engaging in illegal activity because of how this shisha pipe looks. My poor mom is going to think that I've been led astray.